NATIONALIST DEMONSTRATION IN WATERFORD

New Zealand Tablet, 19 March 1914, Page 15

NATIONALIST DEMONSTRATION IN WATERFORD

IMPORTANT SPEECH BY MR. REDMOND. The great Nationalist demonstration held on January 2d iu the ancient city of Waterford should have a permanent place in the history of the triumph of the Irish cause. If it did not eclipse the monster rally recently held in Limerick, this muster of the men of the Southern and South-Eastern counties in the ‘ Ufbs Intacta ’ was fully equal to that memorable event in intensity of enthusiasm and the impressiveness, both as to size and character, which characterised it. From all parts of Waterford County itself, as well as from Wicklow, Wexford, Kilkenny, Limerick, Cork, and Tipperary, both town and country sent great contingents to swell the immense concourse which, from the earliest hours of the morning, assembled in the historic city. It might be said that from Dublin to Cork City there was not a district unrepresented. The notable feature of the gathering, in addition to its vast size, was its splendidly representative character, leading business men from the towns and agriculturists from the rural districts being evidently the main elements in the composition of the meeting, which was addressed by the Leader of the Irish Party and Mr. Joseph Devlin, M.P. ; while every public body was represented by its chief members. Letters of apology, too, were read from many representative people who were unable to attend, including one from the Right Rev. Bishop Sheehan, Bishop of the diocese, who paid warm tribute to Mr. Redmond. His Lordship said the occasion was a great and historic one; it was the welcome of the entire South of Ireland to the man who by his patriotism, skill, and unflagging devotion had brought the country to the very threshold of freedom. The assembly would nerve him still more for the final struggle, and, please God, the next time he returned to the constituency which was so proud of him, it would be to receive at their hands the grateful thanks of an entire people for the restoration of Ireland’s liberty and its nationhood. The Country Under Changed Conditions. Replying to addresses from various public bodies, Mr. Redmond said they were on the eve of a great change in the public life of Ireland. During the battle that they had been waging for the last thirty years there were large classes in the country upon whom they could not call for assistance in the House of Commons —able, practical business men connected not only with agriculture, but with every industry in the country—men who knew Irish life intimately, but who were prevented by the conditions of the case from going over to spend nine, or perhaps twelve, months of the year away from their business, striving for Home Rule in the House of Commons. Well, when the battle was won, the whole aspect of public life in the country would be changed. Capable, steady, representative, moderate men who had not taken part in the Parlia-

mentary struggle for the reason he had given would come in. Politics as they understood them for the last thirty years would disappear in Ireland. The politics they had known would sink for ever. Their task would be, under Home Rule, to apply themselves as practical business men, to the problem of Irish life, to increase Irish prosperity, to foster Irish industries, and to lift up their country from the slough of despondency in which it had been for the last hundred years. Civil War Bogey Ridiculed. In the course of his eloquent public address Mr. Redmond, who met with a most enthusiastic reception, said that as certainly as spring will succeed the gloom of winter, as surely as the full glory of summer* will succeed spring, so certainly will the Home Rule Bill pass into law unless the Government and the Parliament ceased to exist and unless the House of Commons changed its mind. All the ravings and threatenings of their opponents would have no more power to stop it than the shrieking of the winter wind that day to stop the blossoming of the flowers in June. Their opponents seemed to think that by shrieking for civil war they would frighten the Government into committing suicide to save themselves from slaughter. Let them just think for a moment what the abandonment of the Home Rule Bill would mean. It would mean the abandonment of the Parliament Act, of the Welsh Bill, and the other Bills which depended for enactment upon the Parliament Act. It w*ould mean the restoration of the House of Lords. It would mean tiro restoration of Tory rule. It would mean, in other words, the betrayal of the democracy of Great Britain, to say nothing of Ireland, and it would mean inevitably the condemning of the Liberal Party to utter impotence, dishonor, and extinction. Yet their opponents thought they would be able to intimidate the Prime Minister into taking that course. They mistook their man. The Prime Minister was as firm as a rock. The Prime Minister, in his judgment, was the strongest and the sanest Englishman who had appeared in British politics in their time, and he was quite as unmoved as the mass of the people themselves bv the concerted shriek of wild and despairing malice. The timth was, all the talk about civil war was at the bottom absurd. No Disturbance of Business in Ulster. While the air was filled with shrieks of civil war, trade and business in Ulster were booming. Belfast banks were spending large sums of money in opening new branches in the South of Ireland. Belfast merchants were spending large sums of money in extending their business and enlarging their premises. The shipyards in Belfast, even those owned by prominent Unionists, were accepting contracts for the coming year larger than ever before. The Belfast Harbor Board the other day raised an enormous sum of money from the public for the purpose of enlarging the Belfast docks. The Corporation of Belfast, with the doom hanging over their heads, were actually at that moment promoting a Bill to build a great suburban pleasure ground for the city, and some of the Covenant aldermen of that city had, he was told, approached Mr. Devlin and asked him to help them to get the Bill passed. Irish stocks and shares were showing no special depreciation which could be attributed to alarm or the dark cloud of impending gloom. On the contrary, as a matter of fact, the money market was improving. The railways in the North of Ireland were engaged in spending large sums of money in building new station-houses and improving their lines, and the men in Ulster, as in the rest of Ireland and in Great Britain, were following their daily avocations in the ordinary way, and were not in the remotest degree disturbed by the awful spectre of bloodshed and ruin which had been conjuied up. The great body of the people remained unmoved, for every sane man of every party knew that, bai accident, Home Rule would soon be the law of the land. Sir Edward Carson was never tired of saying that his armv was for defence, not for attack. It would never be needed, for he and W» friends would never be attacked.

Wants No Party Triumph. Seven years ago he said he wanted no party triumph,-and lie said the same that day. He wanted to influence the intelligence of their opponents, to dissipate their suspicious, and to soften their hearts. There wore no safeguards which he would object to in a Home Rule Bill to satisfy the fears which these men entertained about their religious interests, and he said deliberately he was the best Irishman who did his best by preaching toleration and conciliation to bring all the sous of gallant Ulster into line for the, cause of Ireland. Of course there were limits. The Prime Minister laid them down explicitly in a recent speech. Any change in the Home Rule Bill must be consistent: first, with the creation of a Parliament for Ireland, with an executive responsible to it ; secondly, with immediate settlement of the question: and thirdlv, with the integrity of Ireland. The success of their cause was due, above all else, to the spirit of loyalty, selfrestraint, and discipline of the people. Over-indulgent and generous friends spoke of his leadership. He was under no delusions on that head. lie knew well his own deficiencies. He admitted many mistakes. The